


world gone up in flames

by palmettto



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Implied/Referenced Violence, Letters, M/M, i dont have many tags theres not much tbh, lmk if u need me to tag smth, the boys be writing to each other but i have a word limit, written for the aftg apocalypse zine!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:02:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22820686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palmettto/pseuds/palmettto
Summary: It’s weird to think that we’re so close now. Well, at least, closer than we were before. I’ve traveled the world a thousand times over, enough for the both of us and then some.I like to think that, eventually, we’ll meet.(an apocalyptic andreil fic featuring short snippets of letters the boys have sent to each other, written for the aftg apocalypse zine!)
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 8
Kudos: 61





	world gone up in flames

**Author's Note:**

> EEEEEEE I HAD SO MUCH FUN WRITING THIS THING ITS BEEN SITTING IN MY FILES FOREVER NOW BUT NOW IT IS TIME! TIME TO POST! TIME TO SHARE IT WITH U ALL! i hope you enjoy reading it as much as i did writing it!!! lmk your thoughts and dont be afraid to let me know if i missed tagging anything! it has been a While since i read it oops

_**Andrew,** _

**_It’s weird to think that we’re so close now. Well, at least, closer than we were before. I’ve traveled the world a thousand times over, enough for the both of us and then some._ **

**_I like to think that, eventually, we’ll meet._ **

* * *

The air was thick with something acrid, the scent awful enough to have Neil’s nose burning. He didn’t quite know how long it had been since he’d seen anyone. As soon as everything went downhill, as soon as the world had turned upside down and onto its head, Neil had ran. 

It was simple, really. He’d always known he’d have to run eventually. He thought it would’ve been because of someone from his past returning. Maybe his father would come for him, or Lola, or anyone else that knew his name and who he was. 

He supposed that was true. In a way, it had come back to haunt him. The old lessons he’d been given, everything he’d learned. It had been put to use one way or another. After he ran. 

The issue was, instead of running because of someone he knew, it was him running because of the impossible; something he never expected. 

The news had said something along the lines of _radioactivity_ causing it, causing _zombies_ to come to life. His mother had taught him a lot about survival, and his father had taught him many things about knives, but nobody had taught him what to do in a _zombie apocalypse_. 

It sounded vaguely video-game like. Something the kids in the dozens of schools he’d attended would be yelling or making jokes about. 

He survived, though.

Somehow, he always did.

* * *

_**Neil,** _

**_I mean it when I say that your idiocy knows no bounds. Do you know the distance between Arizona and South Carolina? A quick Google search could tell you that, and yet here you are, wasting time in a letter to tell me that we’re “closer now”._ **

**_Next time, you should just abstain from sending me your address._ **

* * *

The foxes were annoying. They always would be, always had been. Andrew only tagged along because of Renee, Aaron, Kevin, and Nicky. The vixens had chosen to tag along with them in the end, a bunch of gangly girls and a handful of boys who could throw themselves around whenever needed. 

Andrew supposed they had their uses, but it didn’t mean he had to like it. Especially not when one in particular was annoyingly close to his brother, his twin. The one he was stuck with—or supposed to be—until college got out, as per their promise.

As per the promise that his brother would be breaking, should he be dating the preppy cheerleader. 

Which he was. 

The thing was, Andrew was far from stupid. He was relentless, had an unwavering memory, and was less than willing to back down under pressure. He also didn’t play games, which was apparently what his brother thought they were doing. 

Yet Andrew hadn’t done anything yet. There were more important things to do, such as protect his family from ‘zombies’. Without getting bit. He wasn’t willing to believe his brother wouldn’t push him into a pack should Andrew do the same to the cheerleader. 

So he refrained.

For now.

* * *

_**Andrew,** _

**_Whatever you say, asshole. I was just excited, I mean… we’ve never been this close to each other before. We’ve been separated by entire oceans, y’know?_ **

**_This feels like something big._ **

* * *

Living as Neil Josten during the apocalypse was, in his words, difficult. It was more difficult than living without the apocalypse, though he was sure it would’ve had its own challenges. The real world required documents that proved who he was, that looked real. 

The apocalypse required a survival instinct. It required that he be willing to kill whatever made to kill him first. It was eerily close to being back at his father’s home, though he supposed the world didn’t ask him to enjoy it. 

He supposed he was lucky, too. He had learned how to protect himself and to slaughter others. He knew what to do and he knew how to keep himself safe. His mother and his father saw to it, albeit in far different ways. 

If anything, he could read a map and he could use a knife. That was all that mattered, not how he learned how to do them. He traveled on silent feet, alone. There was nothing and nobody to guide him now, nothing but the ghost of flames and sand on a California beach. 

His mind, full of maps and broken compasses, is what took him from town to town, city to city, past state lines and bridges, through cracked windows and into ransacked stores. 

He never found much in one spot. He’s lucky if he could find glass shards left over from the broken-through windows, let alone food. Sometimes he’d find knives, empty cigarette boxes, canned fruit. 

It wasn’t until he ran into a not-so-empty suburban neighborhood in Oklahoma, what he considered to be a halfway point between Arizona and South Carolina, that he realized just what all he could find.

* * *

_**Idiot,** _

**_Everything feels big to you. Did you forget that you were in California at some point? We’re halfway across the U.S. from each other and you get excited about this?_ **

**_Sad. You need better hobbies._ **

* * *

The thing about the foxes was that, due to their numbers, they had to take frequent stops. And, because there were so many of them, there were limited places they could take up refuge. Setting up tents and such would be easy if they had any, and houses were easy enough to come by. 

The problem only really lied in feeling safe in their area. Spreading out in a handful of houses and taking stock, avoiding a million messes and the paranoia that comes from their reality. 

Oklahoma and their little tiny suburbs felt like a reprieve. A safe space, a new community. New people came and left, some staying and some leaving. 

The others called it hope, what they’re breeding. With a garden in the planting, security measures all around, and Abby heading a research team. 

Andrew called it biding their time until the clock struck twelve and humanity fell on its knees. He split his time between Nicky, Aaron (and subsequently, Katelyn), and Kevin. Wymack, Erik and a handful of others slotted themselves into Andrew’s countdown clock, but not by his own volition. 

“Sierra said her squad ran into a couple Zombies during their search today,” Kevin was saying, despite his nose being buried in an old book with frayed pages. The same book he’d read a thousand times since leaving Palmetto, and even before that. 

Andrew had never seen the book’s cover, or the spine, as Kevin barely let it leave his sight; it was always cracked open in Andrew’s presence. 

“Uh huh,” Andrew said, bored. “What else is new?”

“She got bit,” Kevin said plainly, like it wasn’t revolutionary. It wasn’t. Andrew could no longer count the number of people they’d put down in the name of saving the others. “I visited her in the med bay.”

Andrew figured that was where Aaron was, then. 

“Oh,” Kevin continued. “I saw Nicky. Apparently they found a new kid. Erik said he was trying to sneak in while he was doing surveillance.” 

“He have a name?”

“Nicky said he was hot, Erik said he had no identification,” Kevin told him. “But he said his name was Neil.”

“Neil?” Andrew echoed.

“Yeah,” Kevin said. Andrew held his breath, waited, counted the seconds on his mental timer as it tick, tick, ticked the seconds away. “Neil Josten, I think.”

* * *

_**Andrew,** _

**_I have plenty of hobbies, thank you. I write to you, and I run around and avoid people I don’t like. I’m actually very good at it._ **

**_And hey, just because we’ve been closer doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy being back on the same continent again. And that didn’t feel the same, I didn’t know you then. I mean it when I say this feels different._ **

* * *

They called themselves the foxes. Neil didn’t exactly _mean_ to break into their little survival camp, but it happened. His plan had been to break into a couple of the houses, grab what he could, and get the fuck out. 

Instead, he’d been grabbed and hauled off. They’d asked him questions and taken him to one of the houses. He’d been checked over and assessed. 

At least he could safely say he hadn’t been bitten. 

He was left alone after they poked and prodded some answers out of him. He liked to think he would’ve jumped out the window if it wasn’t so high up, but he knows the bed looked rather comfortable. Beds weren’t always easy to come by. 

Or, well, safe ones weren’t. 

The doors to houses didn’t always lock, and the windows couldn’t always be boarded up for the night. 

Some nights, he went without sleep. Just because he needed the rest didn’t mean the zombies did. Unfortunately. But he didn’t have to worry about that with the foxes, because they had whole groups of people for securing their little sanctuary. 

He could rest. He could let his wounds close and his body catch up to his mind, and then he could leave. That was a plan, it was something worth considering. 

He knew his thoughts were all fabricated, stupid reasons to stay. He had scratches and scars, but nothing quite bad enough to warrant him needing to stay and rest. He slept what he considered to be a decent amount for someone who was living in the apocalypse, too. 

He didn’t need to stay. 

He needed to leave.

Clutching his dirty bag to his chest, he looked to the window of the room he was in. For a moment, he could pretend that everything was normal, that his mother was in the next room over. He turned his gaze away and he felt the promises he made to her snap in half.

He stayed.

* * *

_**Neil,** _

**_If that’s a hobby, does that mean stabbing people who cross boundaries is also a hobby? That’s a rhetorical question. You’re a lost cause, Josten._ **

**_If you were really good at running from those who hate you, you’d be less excited about how close we are._ **

**_I hate you._ **

* * *

Andrew found himself knocking on Neil’s door. If he were anyone else, anyone that Andrew had deemed a threat, he wouldn’t have bothered. But this was Neil. Stupid, dumbass Neil. The very same Neil that Andrew had wasted time—but not really—writing to until the very scientists who were likely dead and gone by now announced the apocalypse. 

He gave Neil three seconds to open the door before he left, which sucked for Andrew since Neil was either really fast or already by the door. Or both. 

“Can I help you?” Neil asked as soon as he opened the door, obviously unable to recognize Andrew for who he was. Which was fair, since Andrew hadn’t sent any pictures to Neil (or vice-versa). Andrew only knew that the man in front of him was Neil because he’d never seen him before, and he was the only newbie. 

Fuck him for being attractive despite the apocalypse. Running around and killing zombies and surviving in general should’ve made him ugly, should’ve dirtied him and morphed his features. Instead, he was pretty. Pretty annoying.

“I hate you,” Andrew said.

“Okay?” A pause. “Who even are you?”

_Oh. Right._ Andrew blinked slowly, like a cat in a sign of trust. How long had it been since their last letter? Since their last attempt at conversation and communication? Distantly, Andrew knew, but he couldn’t scrounge up the numbers in the moment. 

“Andrew,” he said. “It’s been a while, Neil.”

* * *

_**Andrew,** _

**_Sorry for the shitty paper but they don’t have much here, obviously. Meet me on the roof when you get back? xoxo_ **

* * *

Neil heard Andrew’s approach, but he waited until the blonde settled down next to him to speak. His head was turned in his direction and his lips quirked upward. “Hi.”

“Shut up,” Andrew said, but Neil knew he didn’t mean it. “Yes or no?”

“It’s always yes with you,” Neil murmured into the space between them before their lips pressed together like the sides of old, written letters sent through the mail. 

Neil had never felt so at home, not until now. Until Andrew. 

**Author's Note:**

> THANK YOU FOR READING ILY ALL SO MUCH!!!! [ youtuber voice ] dont forget to kudo and comment down below! also you can hmu on tumblr @sundownstreet ;)


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